What Economic and Social Factors Affect GDP Per Capita? A Study on 40 Countries

Abstract

This paper explores the social and economic factors that affect GDP per capita as a gauge of economic development for a sample of forty countries. The whole sample is subjected to regression analysis as GDP per capita being the dependent variable and the rest of the factors being the independent variables. Regression analysis showed that of the eleven independent variables, population, GDP, transparency score and compulsory education are the four factors that affect GDP per capita the most.